Marine vessel.



W. P. LA-Y.

MARINE VESSEL.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 28.1911.

Patented Apr. 15, 1919.,

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

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MARINE VESSEL.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 28. 1911.

1 ,300, 979 Patented Apr. 15, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 II II II II I II II Illlll I II II II II II "II "J! Illlllllll HUI;

f WILLIAM P. LAY, or eAnsnnmALABAMA.

MARINE vEssEn To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM Pr LAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Gadsden, in the county of Etawah and State of Alabama, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Marine Vessels; and

I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. a

This invention relates and more particularly to that type of vessel employing paddle wheels. I

It is one of the objects of the present invention tofacilitate the control of the vessel adaptable of the present lnventlon is to improve the 4 the main hull portion 2 and the side walls and especially to facilitate the steering or turning of the boat and render it readily conserving space but also to stantial power arrangement of the propelling wheels or devices of the vessel and also'the arrangement devices in the form of rudders I o i of steering so that the back wash of the water from the propelling wheel or wheels as the case may be can be utilized to facilitate'the turning or steering of the vessel and especially to provide a system of rudders which will enable the utilization of the back wash when the'wheel or wheels are being rotated in either direction. a

With these and other objects in view as will be rendered manifestin the following specification and clearly apparent to those skilled in the art, there is described in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, the preferred form of the invention and also modifications thereof, these'modifications involving the general principle of the invention and illustrating that changes in the details of the organization and the construction of the parts and the-disposition thereof may be resorted to within the spirit oftheinvention and the limits of the appended claims.

" The invention consists of the construction,

I the combination and in the details as more fully hereinafter described. I

Specification of Letters Iatent.

to marine vessels for use in water courses with nu- P merou-s short curves in its channel; and anotherobject of the present invention is to I provide improvements in the driving .mech anism of a vessel for the purpose not only of enable the employment of a type of compact, light, subplant. The particular object end of the recesses of the hull.

in the recesses 5'5 one on each side of the Patented Apr. 15 1919.

Application filed July 28, 1917. Serial No. 188,253.

- In the drawings:-

Figure '1 is aplan view of the main deck of the vessel, the deck partly being broken away to illustrate the position of the side or strake lines of the hull and showing the preferred form of driving mechanism connectingthe motor plant and the paddle wheels; Fig. 2-is a side elevation of the vessel;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a modified form of the transmitting mechanism connecting the paddle wheels and-the motor plant; and

Fig. 4 is a plan view showing diagrammatically another modification of the connecting mechanism between the paddle wheels and the power plant.

For the purpose of illustration I have shown the invention as applied to a vessel of the stern wheel type having a hull structure 2'with a main deck 3' which may be extended laterally of the strakes of the hull to form guards 4. I have found that a very efficient form of propelling organization maybe obtained if the stern portion of the hull 2 of the vessel is laterally inwardly recessed as at 5 so as to form a relatively narrow and rearwardly extending stern portion 6 which preferably is-ofthe same depth as stern portion 6 may be omitted if desired forward ofthe transverse line 8 at the front Mounted hull are paddle wheels 10 of suitable proportions and construction each having a shaft 11 the outer end of which is mounted in abearing 12 mounted on a girt 13 which may be extended rearwardly from the guard 4. and the rear end of each girt 13 may be connected transversely to the hull end 6 by abeam or beams 14: to secure the desired rigidity and strength to support the shaft of the wheels. Material advantage in efliciency is secured if the wheels 10 are of such width as" to project materially beyond the strake or sides of the hull 2 as clearly shown in Fig.1, so that the projecting portion of the wheelslO may operate in undisturbed,- water as the vessel is propelled forwardly, this arrangement securing in eflect a semiside wheel boat with the wheels arrangedjat the stern of the hull and projectinginwardly from the sides thereof by reason of their location in the recesses 5. One of the 1mportant features of my present inventlon resides in the provision of a system of rudders so that irrespective of whether the .pad

dle wheel or wheels as the case may be is being driven forward or reversed, theb'ack wash from the wheel will be utilized to assist in the turning of the boat byreason of.

the reaction of the back wash water against an adjacent rudderr To. secure th s effect,

" I mount a pair of; rudders on rudder posts 16 forward of the paddle-wheels 10 the posts being shown as hung on the outer corners of thesi des of the hull and at the ends of the transverse, stern walls 8 and I also mount ,on the end of the reduced stern portion 6,

a pair of rudders 17 having posts. 18 pivoted' at the corners of the end of the stern section 6. From this it will be seen that as the paddle wheels are rotated to propel the vessel forwardly, back wash from the wheels reacts against the rudders'lz so that when these rudders are turnedin elther direction, the reaction of the back wash water will materially I aid in turning the boat. When the paddle wheels 10 are being turned to move the boat rearwardly or reverse it, then the back wash of-the water from the wheels will react on the rudders 15- and assist in turning the boat. To my knowledge there hasbeenno previous provisions made of rud-v fiders so disposed with relation to the propolling device of a vessel as to utilize the back wash from the propelling device or wheel when the latter is rotatedin eitherof its directionsduringthe-operation of the vessel. It is? obvious of course, that it is desirable 'toconcurrentl-y swing all of the rudders 111 a slm'ilar direction, and to secure thls, the rearmost rudders 17 are shown as connected by any suitable device at any suitable location, as for instance, by the link 17 and it may be connected to a lever 17 b oted at 17, the lever being connected to a tiller rope 20 passed around suitable guide pulleys 21 and then'strentched forwardlyto and around a drum 22 which may be operated by any suitable system of tiller or steering Wheels. To secure the concurrent action .Of the rudders 15 with the rudders 17, suitable connection is made between the rudders 15 and the tiller rope 20, such means. being shown in Fig. 1 as comprising a short length 7 of rope or cableor other suitable flexibleelement. 25 which may be connected to a connecting rod 26 attached to levers on the rudders 15, so that as one stretch of the tiller-rope 22 is pulled forwardly,- and the opposite stretch shifts rearwardly to compensatetherefor, the connecting" rod or bar 2,6 ofthe forward rudder 15 will be shifted properly transversely across the 111111 to --chang e the angle of and control the rudders-1:

7 It will be understood of'course, that my improved rudder system can be utilized in combination with a single paddle wheel just aswell as with a pair of twin paddle wheels as here shown, so long as one of the rudders is located forward of the paddle wheel and the other aft thereof, so that oneor the other of the rudders will be disposed to get the backwash from. the wheel when the latter is rotated in one direction or the other.

Another important feature of my inventi-on is to provide means'for operating and controlling the paddle wheels .10 either independently of each other or for-connecting them for cooperation uniformly and unidirectionally in the propulsion ofthe'vessel. To that end a feature of the invention con sists'in providing a suitable type of power plant shown herein as comprising a m'otorpr motors 30, preferably of the. internal combustion type which may be operated with any suitable fuel, and: I findthat a very economical cost offuel-Ifor' this type. of engine consists of a gas froma producer plant from which the gas "may-be led directly to the combustion engine or engines of the power plant; In the form of my invention shown in Fig. 1, I employ two motors 30-30, to the crank. shafts of which are connected suitablereverse devices 31 from which lead shafts32 these extending rearwardly along the hull and mounted in suitable bear ings .onthered'uced hull portion 6 between the wheels 10'10, and having on the ends a worm gear 33 intermeshing with respective Worm wheels 34 which .are secured on the vinner portion of the shafts 11-'11 of the paddle wheels. The inner ends of the shafts llare. brought into close juXta-position and areradapted to be coupledttogether by a suit able clutch structure indicated at 35. By this means the two shafts may be positively coupled together so that the wheels can be rotated together forward or backward.

. In the form ofthe invention shown in Fig.

its crank shaftextended at 32'and provided on its end with a beveledpinion 33" which meshes with a' complementary pinion 3& on a; jack shaft 36 which is provided :with vsprocket wheels 37 operating sprocket chains 38 which extend rearwardly and .drive sprocket gears 39 which: are mounted on sleeves on the shafts 11 of the paddle wheels, the sprocket wheels 37 being connectible to the shafts through any suitable form of clutch and reverse mechanism indicated at 40,. the levers fronrwhich may be extended forward and suitably connected together or controlled by the pilot: oftheboat in an obviousmanner. By means ofthe reverse device, the shafts llcanrbe'driven ineither direction on the sprocket wheeliandit is obvious that they can be rotated-simultaneously together aneitherdirection;v

One modification of the invention is illustrated in Fig. 4 wherein I employ two motors 30 the jack shafts 32 of which are connected to suitable reverse gears 40 from which extend shafts 41 having on their ends beveled gears 42 meshing with complementary gears 43 on respective crank shafts 44: each of which is provided with a pinion socket 45 over which runs a chain 46 driving a sprocket wheel 47 which is rigidly connected to a respective paddle wheel shaft '11. From this it will be seen that either wheel is connected with its own motor plant and may be driven in either direction at will and for the purpose of coupling them together for unitary operation in either direction, the inner ends of the shafts 11 are provided with a suitable clutch device 85 While fuel for the motors of the power plant may be derived from any suitable source and at any suitable time, I have shown in the present instance, a gas produce-r P in Fig. 2, provided for the purpose of supplying fuel to the motors.

Obviously my improved system of rudders may be utilized in combination with propelling wheels of various types of vessels and it is understood that various modifications and changes in the details of construction, combination of parts, and in their sizes and proportions may be resorted to within the spirit of the present invention and the appended claims.

' It will be seen that in each of the different forms of the transmitting mechanism con necting the power plant to the wheel shafts it is possible to drive each of the wheels entirely independent of the other and in any direction at any rate of speed so that if desired the steering of the vessel may be facilitated by driving one of the wheels in a direction opposite to that of the other or by driving the wheels in the same direction at different rates of speed so that one wheel would have more driving force than the other and therefore tend to turn the vessel.

It is possible by the forms of drives shown to reverse one wheel while the other is driving ahead.

It will be understood that the tiller control apparatus and also the controlling levers for the various power units, clutches, and

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the reverse gears will be disposed as most convenient to the operator at any point or location on the vessel. Subject matter disclosed in this application and not claimed herein is claimed in a divisional application filed by the applicant.

What is claimed as new is 1. The combination, in a marine vessel, of a shallow draft hull having its stern reduced in width to form lateral recesses; wheels in the recesses, and a pair of rudders one at the lateral extremity of each recess and junction of the side of the hull, and at the longitudinal center, vertical plane of the adjacent wheel so as to take backwash therefrom when the wheel is reversing.

2. The combination, in a marine vessel, of a hollow draft hull having its stern reduced in width to form lateral recesses; and paddle wheels of greater width than the width of the recesses, and a pair of rudders, one at the lateral extremity of each recess and junction of'the strake, and at the longitudinal center, vertical plane of the adjacent wheel so as to take backwash therefrom when the wheel is reversing, and another pair of rudders at the stern of the hull, to take backwash or wheel water when going ahead.

3. In the combination with the hull of a. vessel having its stern recessed inwardly from the sheer planes of the sides to form wheel pockets and a narrow central rear hull portion, a pair of rudders, each located to swing on a vertical axis in the plane of one side of the hull and at the rear end of said side so as to swing outwardly into undisturbed water during headway.

4. In combination wi h he hull of a vessel having its stern recessed inwardly from the sheer planes of the sides to form wheel pockets and a narrow central rear hull por- WILLIAM P. LAY.

Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

